of a horse reversing/going backwards - as an evasion...
with a horse i was sent to 'sort out' for a different problem
(which problem - surprise, surprise - disappeared once she had a saddle that fitted!!)
she would refuse to leave the home patch,
even with a companion...
she would spin and 'plant' herself sideways
(not fun as i have a steep drop on that side of the track!)
and would only move backwards,
either towards the precipice in reverse!!!
yet once she was about 1/4 mile from home she would hack like a dream...
After trying all the 'obvious' things over several days...
I decided to try 'lateral thinking' ...
So, I turned her 180 degrees
and rode her down the path in the direction I wanted to go,
BUT in reverse
i.e. with her head pointing back towards home
- if you follow me...
Every 20 yards or so
I would turn her back round
and ask her to continue on the hack walking forwards...
If she refused I then span her round again
and went backwards again...
My record was 1/4 mile in reverse!!
(I'm lucky in that I have direct access to forest tracks
so can do this in relative safety -
I wouldn't suggest trying this on a road!)
After about a week of this
she realised there was no point in this evasion
and just stopped doing it
so no more horse reversing/going backwards - as an evasion...
Just to clarify...
I wasn't asking for rein back as such,
more a case of -
"you want to walk backwards, that's fine, just allow me to choose the direction"
AND MOST IMPORTANTLY OF ALL...
Once she went forwards
(which she always did sooner or later)
I made sure she had a lovely, interesting, non taxing, hack
so that after a while she was thinking -
"great, wonder what adventure we'll have today?"
rather than -
"I don't want to leave my field, so I'll 'play up'..."
speaking anthropomorphically, of course ;-}
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